


Do You Want to Hear About the Deal I'm Making?

by Aaronlisa



Category: American Horror Story, American Horror Story: Apocalypse
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canonical Character Death, Gen, reference to other canon characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-21 11:18:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17042735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aaronlisa/pseuds/Aaronlisa
Summary: She keeps waking to find out nothing has changed.





	Do You Want to Hear About the Deal I'm Making?

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for the entire season. The title comes from Kate Bush's "Running Up that Hill."

The world was saved. And everything was back to normal. The nuclear apocalypse had never happened and the end of days had been diverted. Mallory breathes a sigh of relief as she knocks on the door of Miss Robichaux's Academy. As Cordelia shows her around, she can't help but grin as she watches Zoe teaching her class of girls. Everything feels right in the world. 

The sense of relief that she feels when Queenie finally returns to New Orleans complaining about _The Price is Right_ and how being a witch only got her so far. Mallory hates the fact that she can't tell anyone why she feels so much relief because no one knows. The first timeline is something only she remembers. No one in this timeline knows who Michael Langdon is because they have no reason to know he is. He dies alone on the street and doesn't even get a mention on a back page of the _Los Angeles Times_. 

She had promised herself that she'd get Madison out but as time goes on and things change ever so slightly, Mallory forgets about Madison and how much she must be suffering in Hell or even how much the other witch had helped out in the end. Instead Mallory focuses on her magic. There seems to be some kind of block on it. She's not as powerful as she was when she had woken up from the dead in Outpost 3 realizing that everything she thought she had known was nothing more than a spell.

At first, everything seems perfect and then she starts to notice little things. How Cordelia will look exhausted after a spell, how Zoe bites her lower lip as she and Queenie whisper in a darkened corner of the stately estate. And eventually there's little things in the news that is always on every night in one of the common rooms. Something is happening but it's not until she's waking up from the dead and a raging headache in Outpost 3 that she realizes that it's happening _again_. 

This time, Cordelia looks thinner. Some of her vitality is gone, her hair looks lank and dull. The witches flanking her are Queenie and Myrtle. The three of them look drained and Queenie has a slightly grey cast to her skin. Everyone else is dead. She hadn't saved them all in the end. As she's still trying to collect herself, _he_ enters the room. His power washes over and she gasps when she looks at him and it's not Michael. 

She realizes then that the power radiating off of this young man is similar to Michael's but different. There is no hesitation in this man. No childish pouting over the need to gain revenge. Ms. Mead is still at his side, still proud of this young man who has brought about the destruction of the planet. His name comes to her when he opens his mouth to taunt them. 

_Devan_. Not Michael. The memories almost overwhelm her. She had stopped the antichrist but somehow let him be reborn. She realizes that this is what would have happened had Ms Mead and her colleagues found Michael earlier. 

"Is that the best that you have?" Devan rudely asks. "Aren't you tired of this?" 

It's not until she's sinking in the water and going back in time to fix that she realizes that Devan was taunting _her_ and not Cordelia. This time she's going back in time to prevent him from ever being born by destroying her parents. 

When she first sees them and realizes that she _must_ kill them, something tiny inside of her breaks apart. And she realizes that this is not the _first_ time that she's had to do this and as she leaves the scene of her crime, she wonders if it's even the second time that she's had to do something like this. 

* * * 

It's not until she and Cordelia are standing just outside of the room where Zoe is teaching her class, that Mallory realizes how tense she was to be here. She's no longer that shy girl unaware of her powers but Zoe had been the first to recognize her power and to believe in her. It feels pleasant to see Zoe alive and healthy once more. This time she vows that she won't allow the antichrist to rise for a third time. This time she will prevent the apocalypse from happening all over again,. This time vigilance will be her byword to live by. 

When Nan arrives with Misty and Madison, Mallory feels even more relief. This time they will have all of their allies. They won't need them all but things feel right with everyone being there safe and sound. Nan pulls her aside when Cordelia is distracted by the others. 

"Papa has told me to tell you that you had best be careful to not let things happen again," Nan says. 

There is no trace of the impishness that Mallory had associated with the girl the last time she saw her. This time there is a cold fury in her eyes. It fades when Nan turns back to Cordelia. Now she is all warmth and smile. Mallory can see why Papa Legba values Nan so highly. 

Despite her vows and despite the warning, Mallory becomes complacent. At a later time she will reflect on that and vow to not become complacent. But this time, there's nothing to indicate that the antichrist has been born again or even found again or that they are trying to bring about the end of the world. Certain dates pass by with nothing happen and Mallory relaxes her guard bit by bit. 

This time when she wakes up from the dead and a killer headache, it's Myrtle, Zoe and Madison standing over them. Cordelia hadn't made it and Mallory can feel the magic racing through her veins claiming her to be the next supreme. There's no time to ask what happened to Cordelia, no time to even mourn her as a young man enters the room with Ms Mead standing beside him. 

There's barely enough time to do what needs to be done, to go back in time to prevent this young man from being born, from rising and ruining the world. This man exudes power and confidence. Devan and Michael were mere children in comparison. When Ms Mead is gunned down by Queenie, he doesn't even flinch. There is no emotion from him. No shock, no horror, nothing. He's not fuelled by revenge or hate. She can see as he casually kills Queenie that this is just something that must be done to further his father's agenda. 

She flinches and realizes that she's been shot as she runs down the hall to do what must be done. When she destroys the parents of this antichrist, she doesn't even flinch. Something slight bigger her is irrevocably broken. 

* * * 

When she wakes up from the dead with a migraine that makes even the slightest movement on her part extremely painful, Mallory doesn't even care how she managed to fail this time. She can barely rejoice in the fact that it's Cordelia standing above her. Not when she notices Myrtle's absence or the fact that Madison is missing an arm. What has happened this time around?

Before she can even process anything, the antichrist is there. This time it's a young woman with long blonde hair. She is wearing a red silk gown and Ms Mead is by her side. Mallory's mind tells her that this is Emerson. That she had been sent to the Academy to learn all about them. Before she had left, she had made sure that she burnt the academy to the ground. Only a few of them had survived. Mallory's eyes widen when Dinah moves out from behind Emerson and Ms Mead to take her place at Emerson's right hand. 

"Is this the part where I shake and shiver because you somehow managed to survive Cordelia?" Emerson asks. "Or this the part where you tell me that witches are akin to cockroaches?" 

Mallory can see how shaken up Cordelia looks. There's no time to explain that this happened so many times before. When Mallory looks back at Emerson, she can see her image flickering as her form momentarily looks like Michael and then Devan and then someone else. 

"I am a legion," Emerson says. "You have no hope of winning this battle. No matter how many times you win." 

"It's not about winning," Cordelia starts to say but Emerson cuts her off with a wave of her hand. 

Cordelia falls to the ground dead. Emerson smirks at Mallory as she brushes her long blonde hair off of her face. 

"How boring that speech is," Emerson tells her. "Rise up little Supreme." 

Mallory stands on shaking legs in front of Emerson. The room is deathly silent and still. 

"Have you made up your mind yet?" Emerson asks. 

And Mallory is confused. What is there to decide? 

"Shall we continue playing this game or will you take your rightful place in the new order?" 

In that moment, Mallory runs to the tub, she says a spell that fills it with water and Emerson's mocking laughter follows her as she falls back in time desperate to undo what has happened so many times. 

* * * 

No matter what she does, she can't stop the end of days from happening. She tries and she tries and every time she fails. It doesn't matter what she does to prevent things because she always wakes up from the dead with a horrible headache in Outpost 3 and nothing has changed. 

((END))


End file.
